Page 42 of Taken By The Wolves (Blackwood Forest #2)

NIXON

The bears are coming.

It’s a scene I never thought I’d witness but here I am, loading gear and supplies into trucks alongside men I’d have considered my enemies an hour ago.

Bear shifters are dropping their lives to fight a wolf we count as a shared threat.

It’s humbling, in a way I can’t articulate, how easily little Ahya can dissolve years of bitterness and turn hardheaded shifters into protectors.

She’s our future, and she’s becoming theirs, too.

I shake hands with Hunter and Connor, as the weight of alliance settles between us.

My family has gathered around our vehicle. “Gregory will have scouts,” Reed says, wiping sweat from his brow, his eyes scanning the tree line. “He may know we’re here already. Or, if he doesn’t, he will the second we pull up with a giant convoy.”

“That’s the point,” I remind him, clapping him on the shoulder. “We want him to know. We want him to understand what he’s up against. We want him to come.”

Reed’s jaw is tight. He turns to Scarlet. “Are you and Ahya okay?”

Scarlet, who has been quiet since our arrival at the bear compound shrugs. “Ahya’s fine. I’m… worried.”

“And that’s natural.” I step closer, brushing her hand with mine. “Don’t worry. You’ll be protected.”

She glances from me to Reed and then to Finn, who’s leaning against the truck, arms folded, gaze intense. “And you three?”

“We’ll fight.” I grin sharply to hide the dread curling low in my gut.

We’re wolves. We know how to tear flesh from bones.

We know how to outpace, outthink, and outlast. But this isn’t a regular wolf pack.

Gregory’s pack is feral, guided by no moral compass.

They act like creatures with nothing to lose.

And that makes them dangerous and unpredictable.

What will they be prepared to do for Ahya and the power she may hold?

***

The crunch of tires on gravel rolls through the quiet like distant thunder as the first convoy of bear trucks pulls into the lumberyard, their headlights flashing between rows of stacked timber and aging machinery.

The sight of their arrival shifts the mood—dozens of hulking men stepping out of their vehicles with the calm authority of seasoned fighters who understand the cost of battle and are willing to pay it.

Hunter steps from the cab of the lead truck, followed by Evan and Robert, their presence solid and grounding.

Behind them, more bear shifters unload crates, unroll tents and mark territory with the unspoken synchronicity of those who’ve battled and survived together.

They carry weapons and armor, but it’s the quiet way they move that holds weight.

There’s a tension in the air that buzzes against my skin.

The yard springs to life with shifters humming with purpose. Bears and wolves move side by side, staking perimeter posts, erecting shelters, unloading tools and supplies. No one talks about the strangeness of it. We’ve moved beyond disbelief and into survival.

When I return to the cabin, Scarlet sits in the doorway with Ahya in her lap. The girl nibbles banana slices while her wide, watchful eyes scan the growing camp. She looks so small, but already the earth tilts around her.

Scarlet glances up at me, her mouth pressed into a tight line that tells me more than any words ever could.

“You think Gregory’s going to come to us?” Reed asks, approaching.

“We want him to come. We want him to know our power.”

Before Reed can reply, the low hum of more engines draws our attention to the road again, and I know immediately that the wolves have arrived.

My father rides at the front, flanked by Chris and Macon.

Their convoy rolls to a stop at the far edge of the yard, every eye trained on the unfamiliar alliance before them.

The scent of our old pack hits. There’s a moment of stillness, brittle and electric, until my father steps out and approaches, taking deliberate strides.

I meet him halfway, flanked by Reed and Finn, and without hesitation, my father extends his hand.

I clasp it.

One by one, the other alphas follow, bears approaching to make a pact and a promise, that in this yard, on this day, we are not fractured. We’re many. We’re united.

“We need to send scouts,” my father says.

“Bears and wolves together,” Hunter agrees. “Mix the teams. Let them cover each other's blind spots. Learn to trust each other.”

I nod, and we dispatch the fastest runners.

As they disappear into the trees, we talk about strategy.

The wind shifts as the sun dips behind the treetops, and the air stirs as Cami approaches, cloaked in ash gray, moving silently through the makeshift camp with the old bear mystic at her side.

They move with gravity, drawn toward Scarlet and Ahya like iron filings to a lodestone.

They find their way to Scarlet’s side, where she sits watching the gathering with the wariness of a mother bird with a single precious egg in her nest. The mystics kneel beside her without ceremony, their bodies bending like old branches, their attention locked on the child who laughs as she claps her hands and shifts, not once, but twice, first into a bear cub with thick fur and black paws, then into her human form again, and finally, with a glimmer of silver light, into a tiny gray wolf.

A hush falls across the lumberyard.

I watch as hardened warriors, bear and wolf alike, turn to look with wonder and awe.

“She’s already growing in strength and control,” Cami says softly, her voice carrying power despite its low volume.

The bear mystic’s eyes never leave Ahya. “She walks the line between bloods as a guide.”

“Or a weapon?” Scarlet whispers. I wince, but the mystics do not chastise her, and the rest of the gathering group are too busy to take in her warning.

***

The scouts return faster than expected. Two wolves and a bear sprint into the clearing, sweat shining on their chests, faces grim and hollow eyed as they dress hastily.

They cross the yard quickly, heading straight for the cluster of alphas near the center.

“Gregory’s gathering,” one of them reports, voice low but urgent. “They’re not hiding. He wants this fight. Sixty, maybe more.”

“Numbers we expected,” Hunter says. “But?”

The scout hesitates, glancing up. “There’s something else. Something—

“What?” I bark. “Spit it out.”

“We weren’t sure at first,” the scout says. “But then we heard it. Something massive. The sound of it…” The scout swallows, his Adam’s apple shifting. His head lifts, eyes wide and fearful as he scans the sky above us.

My blood runs cold. “The sound of what?”

“We don’t know,” the bear shifter says, rubbing the center of his brows. His barrel chest heaves, and his eyes dart upto the sky, as wide and fearful.

“A bird?” I ask. “Something in the sky?”

I sound like I’m playing charades, but no one is giving me answers.

How dangerous could a bird be?

“No feathers,” the bear says.

“No feathers,” I repeat, confusion surging. What kind of bird doesn’t have feathers? They can’t mean…

The bear mystic’s head lifts sharply. “A creature of ruin.”

Cami’s face is grave. “No. It can’t be.”

“We saw it,” Harry, the youngest but fastest wolf shifter in my father’s pack, says. “At least, I think we saw it.”

He doesn’t sound sure.

“Whatever you saw, is it with Gregory?”

He shrugs and I growl with frustration. “I… I don’t know, Nixon. It was a glimpse… the noise of it.”

I turn to Cami, desperate to understand what’s happening.

“The child is born of magic,” Cami says. “And dragons were always the oldest protectors of magic. If one has awakened... maybe it senses what is to come.”

“Gregory can’t control a dragon,” I say, searching their faces for confirmation. “Right?”

“No,” Cami says. “But he may have awakened it. Or worse, angered it.”

I run my hands over my face as the tense silence strangles the camp. The world seems thinner now, stretched too tight, like the membrane between what we know and what we fear is about to tear.

“We deal with what’s in front of us, and we stay ready for the rest,” my father says. “That’s all we can do. Dragon talk isn’t helpful right now. “

“Okay.”

I clap him on the shoulder, relieved to have his guidance again, and move past to take Scarlet’s face in my hands.

“Keep Ahya with you at all times. Don’t let her out of your sight.”

Her eyes swell with tears that I wipe away with my thumbs before pressing a kiss onto her lips. “You carry life inside you,” I whisper. “I love you. I will come back.”

Her face crumples as she shakes her head. I touch her flat belly, already sensing the change within her; the warm sweetness of her pregnant scent and the magic of life growing within. “You are strong, Scarlet. My love. My mate.”

I straighten quickly and walk away before the desperate way she clutches at me fractures my heart.

***

The smell of sweat and metal lingers, the tension heavy enough to choke on. Bears and wolves stand side by side now, shoulder to shoulder, moving with purpose as the final defenses are laid. No one speaks of the dragon.

But every one of us is listening for wings.

Inside the cabin, Cami and the bear mystic draw sacred lines around Scarlet, Ahya, and the children. Reed and Finn take up posts on the outer edges. Hunter stands beside me; the weight of leadership etched into the lines around his eyes.

“I have to tell you something,” he says. “I want you to understand the trust I’m putting in you by making this confession. You cannot share this information with anyone. Not even your brothers. Doing so will risk my whole family.”

I nod, giving him space to find the words.

“When Goldie was in labor, she almost died. We were forced to enhance our bond, to give her our life force, but in doing so, we linked ourselves and our lives for good. If one of us dies, we all die.”

I blink, stunned. I didn’t even know that was a possibility. Maybe it’s a solution for bears.

“So, you’re worried about fighting?”

“I love fighting, Nixon. But I have two cubs and a pregnant mate. I can’t risk all our lives in the thick of battle. You have to understand that this goes against who I am and what I want to be as an alpha.”

“I do.”

“Me and my brothers… we’ll stay at the cabin to protect the women. Leave Reed with us. We can’t risk our mates being harmed. It’s the most we can do.”

“Yes,” I say. “I understand. And I’m thankful for your support, Hunter. You didn’t have to bring your family into this… especially under the circumstances.”

“You have enough of a force to defeat Gregory. You will win this fight.”

“Goddess willing.”

We stand for a while longer, the night tight around us.

No fires are lit.

No songs are sung.

We wait.

And in the distance, rising with the mist and darkness, a scream echoes, cutting the silence like a blade.